Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.

Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

Why has the government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.

I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.

There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.

The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.

Politics is the art of the possible.

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.

If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.